Television
December 1, 2004
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution And SF Anytime Sign VOD Agreement For Scandinavia
(December 1, 2004 – Burbank, CA) – Warner Bros. International Television Distribution and the Nordic Video-On-Demand service SF Anytime (www.sf-anytime.com) have signed a long-term broadband, VOD deal which will allow subscribers to access filmed content online, it was announced today by Jeffrey Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD), and Johan Cramér, CEO of SF Anytime.
Under the terms of the deal, SF Anytime will have the right to offer current feature film releases, at the latest six months after the DVD release, and a selection of library titles online, through streaming to the end user’s PC. The content will be geo-filtered to ensure that it is available to broadband customers in the Nordic countries only (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) and will be available for a 24 hour viewing period once the film has been accessed. This will give consumers legitimate access to such current films as “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Mystic River,” “Troy” and “The Last Samurai,” as well as select library titles.
The deal between SF Anytime and Warner Bros. International Television Distribution was negotiated by Mickie Steinmann, Vice President, Sales, WBITD, and includes important provisions to increase cooperation in the fight against on line film piracy by protecting content rights in the digital space.
“We are delighted to partner with Warner Bros., which has a long and strong history of delivering some of the strongest features known. They will be one of our key partners for a long time. With Warner Bros. on board, we can push even harder for the development of VOD in the Nordic Countries,” said Cramér.
“As the technology for VOD has improved and broadband’s penetration widens, the VOD platform has become increasingly important for us as has making a legal, legitimate platform for accessing our films via the internet to the PC,” said Schlesinger. “We need to work with partners that are reliable and can further the development and popularity of the VOD business and we’re pleased that SF Anytime is one such partner in Scandinavia.”
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